Thursday, 21 October 2010

Afghanistan War may make or break Obama's Presidency

This is a thoroughly absorbing article on the wars American Presidents had taken their country after the Second World War until the current war in Iraq and Afghanistan, too bad President Obama has no place to sit when the music stops, just hope he does the right thing for America and end the wars his predecessor George Bush had started instead of perpetuating it to God knows what end:

Obama's Cynicism

BY MARK SHEA Wednesday, October 20, 2010 12:00 AM

Andrew Bacevich is somebody I respect a great deal. A Catholic conservative and a principled opponent of our policy of Permanent War, he served honorably in the Army for decades and sacrificed a son to our disastrous and wrong-headed war in Iraq. He was respectful, yet unstinting in his criticism of the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration that have embroiled us in our imperial adventures (and of the policies pre-dating Bush 43 by decades, which are embraced by both sides of the aisle as conventional wisdom).

His book, Washington Rules, chronicles the way in which our present wrong-headed policies abroad evolved, flourished, and are now rapidly becoming outdated as we try to maintain an empire abroad while embracing folly at home.

Bacevich points out something that those drunk on Hopenchange have not wanted to face concerning our Nobel Peace Prize Winning President.

In an article titled “Non Believer” that ran in the 7 July 2010 issue of The New Republic, Bacevich compared President George W. Bush, whom he regards as wrong-headed but sincere, with President Obama, whom he says has no belief in the Afghanistan war but pursues it for his own politically cynical reasons and asks the musical question: “Who is more deserving of contempt? The commander-in-chief who sends young Americans to die for a cause, however misguided, in which he sincerely believes? Or the commander-in-chief who sends young Americans to die for a cause in which he manifestly does not believe and yet refuses to forsake?”